Colon Blanks A's, Yanks Cruise To 5-0 Win

I was out for most of the game, so when I quite shocked when I walked into the house and saw that Colon complete his seventh shutout inning of the day by retiring Hideki Matsui on a grounder to Cano. Maybe I shouldn't have been, after all, the guy's been one of the Yankees best starter this year. I guess after his last rocky start I expected a little bit of a fall back to earth, but no, there was none of that on Monday.

Colon would go on to complete his gem, tossing a complete game four-hitter. As you might expect, his command was excellent all day--throwing 71 of 103 pitches for strikes--and did not walk a batter while striking out six. Just an absolutely dominating performance from Bartolo.

The Yankees would give Colon all the runs he'd need in their first at-bat scoring three in the top of the first. Mark Teixeira made it 2-0 with his 16th homer of the game. The homer was Tex's 7th in his last 11 games. Derek Jeter had previously singled to leadoff the game on his 2981st hit of his career. Later in the inning Cano would drive in a run with a double to plate A-Rod, who had reached on a walk.

Jeter later drive in the Yankees fourth run with a seventh inning sac fly.

The win improves the Yankees to 29-23 on the year and moves them in a tie for first with the Red Sox.

Game two of the series is tonight @ 10:05 PM, and Freddy Garcia will face A's left-hander Brett Anderson.

(BOX SCORE)

 PLAYER OF THE GAME: Bartolo Colon
HONORABLE MENTION: Mark Teixeira